In helicopters and other vertical take-off and landing aircraft, various surface engaging systems may be used depending upon the operational requirements for landing the aircraft. For example, helicopter landing gear systems may comprise skids, skis, wheels, or floats. In those systems, the energy of the shock and stress encountered by the landing gear when it engages the surface may be absorbed by resilient springs, bending rods, torsion bars, air-filled bodies, or various combinations of these shock absorbing devices.
In some helicopter operational environments, it is highly desirable to be able to selectively change the helicopter landing gear configuration. In particular, it is sometimes necessary to modify a helicopter having a skid landing gear assembly by providing landing gear wheels to facilitate moving the aircraft on the ground.
Because of the critical nature of weight added to helicopters, wheel landing gear systems provided as addons to landing skids are undesirable. However, it is desirable to provide a wheel landing gear system that replaces landing skids quickly without requiring any special structural provisions. Thus, there is a need for an alternate wheel landing gear assembly that replaces a helicopter's skid landing gear and may be installed quickly using the same structural saddles used for the skid landing gear assembly.